


Han and Leia Appreciation Week Shorts

by BaronVonChop



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 12:19:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7508062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BaronVonChop/pseuds/BaronVonChop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for Han & Leia Appreciation week on Tumblr, organized by <a href="http://han-leia-solo.tumblr.com/">han-leia-solo</a>. Each story fills a different prompt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Jealousy

“Oh, you look nice!” said Han, looking up from the living room couch as Leia stepped out of the bedroom. She was wearing a flowing, long-sleeved gown of light blue Nabooian silk, with a simple string of pearls from Mon Cala around her neck.

Leia gave him a smile. She looked more well-rested ever since the latest Senate bill had passed, and the smile encouraged Han. “Threepio helped me pick this outfit, if you can believe it.”

Han glanced at Threepio with a lazy smile. “Nice job, Goldenrod. You’ve got a knack for outfits. Who woulda thought it?”

Threepio turned in Han’s direction. “It’s a shame you’re not going to the reception, Master Solo, or I would have been happy to pick out an outfit for you, too.”

“Nah, I’m never really comfortable at these things,” Han said, turning back to the datapad he’d been reading. “I hope you have a good time, Leia. That was some bill you pushed through, and well worth the celebration.”

Leia walked up behind him and planted a kiss on the back of his neck. “Poor Han, stuck here while I go out to a fancy party.”

Han chuckled. “I really don’t mind!”

“You’re not jealous?”

“Of what?” Han scoffed. “Wearing uncomfortable clothes and making small talk with people who think they’re too good for this galaxy? Come on.”

Leia tapped her chin, mock thoughtful. “It’s just that I thought that, when I go out to events like this, you feel so left out that you have Chewie and Lando come over to wear rented tuxes and watch sappy costume holodramas together.”

Han waved a hand. “You make it sound like we do that all the time. We may have done that once, maybe twice.”

“All right,” said Leia, laughing. Han turned to her and she kissed him. “I’ll probably be back late, so you should eat without me.”

“Will do. I love you.”

“I know. Come on, Threepio.”

“Coming, Mistress Leia!”

Leia opened their apartment door to find Chewbacca and Lando standing outside the door. Lando wore a rented tuxedo and had another one over his shoulder in a garment bag, while Chewbacca was carrying the boxed set for the holodrama _Noble Hearts of Naboo_.

Lando gave her a sheepish smile. “We’re early, aren’t we?”


	2. Space Roadtrips

“Are we there yet?” Luke asked, slouched in the chair behind Chewbacca in the _Millennium Falcon_ ’s cockpit.

“We’re still in hyperspace,” Leia pointed out. She sat behind Han, beside Luke. “So no, we’re there yet.”

“Are we close?”

Leia looked at Han, who said, “We won’t be there for a while. Why don’t you go in the back and play some holochess on the dejarik table?”

Luke turned in the chair and flopped sideways. “I’m bored of holochess. I always have to let Chewie win.”

Chewbacca folded his hands behind his head with a self-satisfied smirk.

“You could play against the droids,” Leia offered.

Luke sighed. “They’re too good.”

Leia thought for a few moments. “You could go back to the cots and nap for a bit. That’d make the trip pass faster.”

“But I’m not tired.”

Han groaned. “Kid, I swear, if you don’t find something to do in the next five minutes, I’m gonna lock you in one of the smuggling compartments.”

Luke swiveled his chair back and forth, his head flopping listlessly with each rotation. Then he noticed something on the navigation console. “Hey, we’re passing by a rest stop! Can we stop for snacks?”

“Are you hungry,” Leia asked, “or do you just want snacks?”

Luke scrolled through the readout. “It says they’re the home of the galaxy’s largest meiloorun fruit, and you can see the sector’s smallest bantha!”

“That sounds cute,” Leia said. “What do you think, Han?”

Han rolled his eyes. “All of these places are the same. They put up signs, and suddenly people pay ten credits just to see something they wouldn’t bother looking at for free.”

Luke’s voice started to rise in pitch. “Come on, Han, can we please let’s stop? Also, I gotta use the refresher.”

Leia raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with the ‘fresher on the _Falcon_?”

Her brother was silent for a moment, then said in a quiet voice, “Chewie just used it ten minutes ago. I don’t want to go in there yet.”

Chewie laughed, bobbing his head and huffing.

Leia spoke up. “Actually, I kind of have to use the refresher, too, and if Chewie just used the one on the ship...”

Han looked at Chewie, who shrugged. “All right,” Han said. “But I’m only stopping ten minutes. If you’re not back on the ship then, I’m leaving without you!”


	3. AU/Crossover

“Luke, stay with me!” Leia yelled across the Conn-Pod at her brother, who sagged in his feedback cradle as he struggled to stay conscious. Warning lights flashed in the Conn-Pod, alerting the pilots that their Jaeger, Rambler Zenith, had sustained heavy damage.

Luke shook his head, trying to clear it. “I’m okay,” he said, his voice strained.

Leia glanced at the readouts on the Jaeger’s HUD. “Looks like Vader’s coming around for another pass.” As she spoke, the hulking kaiju known as Vader reappeared from behind the cliff that partially encircled the bay where they were fighting. The beast’s body was covered in bone-like armor, especially around the torso and head. The creature was winded from the fight so far, and Luke and Leia could see mucus and blood flying from the mouth-hole in the skull-shaped bone armor on its head. They could hear its labored breathing even over the pounding of the surf.

“Let’s go!” Leia shouted. Luke nodded. They brought their fists up in tandem, and the towering Jaeger mirrored the motion.

Luke blinked sweat from his eyes, then nodded. “We’re going in full throttle!”

The brother-sister team leaned forward in their feedback cradles, lifting their feet and putting them down again as Rambler Zenith surged through the shallow water toward the kaiju. Seeing them coming, Vader began to charge, churning the water in its headlong rush toward them.

Though the twins did not have much combat experience, they had spent a lot of time training together in simulations. Now, they struck as one, and their Jaeger delivered a devastating right cross to Vader’s head, followed quickly by a left hook. The kaiju stumbled back, snorting and wheezing.

“Careful, Luke,” Leia warned.

“We can finish this now!” Luke insisted, gritting his teeth. Leia could feel how exhausted her brother was, and he knew that he hoped to finish the fight quickly, because he could not keep up the momentum much longer.

Rambler Zenith took another step forward and went for a right hook. The blow glanced off Vader’s chin and the kaiju shook it off. Rambler was momentarily overextended and off-balance after the punch, and the kaiju took the opening, delivering a devastating haymaker that smashed the Jaeger down into the water.

Cold water from the bay blasted over the pilots from a split in the Conn-Pod’s armor.

Luke flailed weakly against the water, his body pushed to its limit. Leia’s eyes widened when she saw that his right wrist was badly broken, twisted at an unnatural angle, with the bone sticking out.

Tears pricked her eyes, but she blinked them away. If they gave up now, Vader would kill them both, then begin destroying cities. Countless lives hung in the balance, and they were the only ones who could make a difference. “We need to stand up again, or it’s over!” she shouted.

Luke managed to nod, and he tried to stand the Jaeger up with her, but it was too much for him. Rambler Zenith crashed back into the water.

“Luke!” Leia screamed. She could hear the fear and concern in her own voice, but she couldn’t help it.

Then a sound came over the comm:

“Yeehoo!”

Leia looked out the viewport to see another Jaeger charge in from behind Vader, catching the kaiju unaware. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when she saw that it was Falcon Millennium, an obsolete model that had been relegated to Oblivion Bay years ago. Some scavengers must have stolen the Jaeger from the scrapheap and somehow repaired it to working condition. Still, such an outdated machine couldn’t hope to stand for long against a beast as powerful as Vader. Even as she watched, the beast grabbed the Jaeger in its claws and squeezed, causing the armor plates on the machine’s sides to buckle and break.

“Come on, Luke. Here’s our chance. We have to get up now!”

Luke stirred, and slowly the Jaeger stood. Once they were up, he blinked through the pain at his sister. Blood leaked down his cheek from a broad cut on his forehead.

“Can you do this?” Leia asked.

She watched as his blue eyes hardened with determination. He nodded, then assumed a fighting stance.

“Then let’s go!”

* * *

The Shatterdome bustled with happy commotion when their helicopter touched down. Luke had lost consciousness immediately after the fight, and Leia could not bring Rambler Zenith back on her own, so a helicopter had brought them back to the base.

Vader’s defeat signalled the end of the kaiju threat, and the celebration was already well underway. Despite the festive mood, people quickly made way and fell silent as medics wheeled Luke and Leia on stretchers to the Shatterdome’s medical wing.

The doctors patched Leia up and ordered her to stay in their hospital beds for the next few days for observation. Luke was still in surgery, and Leia could only wait. When she asked a passing nurse for news about Luke, the nurse let Leia know that Luke would survive, but the doctors had needed to amputate his hand.

Leia lay back on her hospital bed, trying to process the news. At least he would live, she told herself.

Leia awoke from a doze to see two of the other beds were now occupied. They must be Falcon Millennium’s pilots, she realized. One was a huge man with long, wild hair and an enormous beard. His shirt had been removed to treat his broken ribs, revealing the hairiest torso Leia had ever seen. The other was a brown-haired man with a his arm in a sling. When he saw her looking at him, he gave her a lopsided smile and a roguish wave.

Leia lay back on her cot, her eyes on the ceiling.

This was going to get interesting, she could tell.


	4. Hoth

Leia hurried through the frozen tunnels of the Hoth base. She had heard that Luke and Han had been found in the wastes and brought back to the base, so she was on her way to the medical wing. A multitude of emotions competed in her mind. Foremost on her mind was fear for Luke. He had been in pretty bad shape when Han had found him, and despite Han’s best efforts, his condition had continued to deteriorate through the night. Though Leia knew the Rebel doctors would do the best they could, she knew that the base’s medical facilities did not compare to a real hospital.

She still felt the helplessness that had gripped her while Han set out to search for Luke. By the time she heard about his departure, there was nothing she could do to help. All she could do was wait for word, and hope that Han hadn’t simply consigned himself to the same frozen death as Luke.

Though she was grateful to Han for saving Luke’s life, she was still annoyed with him. The last time they had spoken, he had announced that he was abandoning the Rebels, and Leia had not taken the news well.

When she got to the medical wing and saw that Han and Chewbacca were already there. She didn’t know whether to thank Han or punch him. How could he care so little about the Rebellion? And yet he clearly cared about Luke.

And, though she tried not to think about it, Leia could not help but wonder: did he care about her?

And did she care about him?

Chewie gave her a mournful look as she approached, but Han kept his eyes on the ground, lost in his thoughts.

She walked up next to Han, and he looked up. At first, neither of them spoke.

Then Han said, “They’ve got Luke in a bacta tank now. They say there shouldn’t be any permanent damage, but they’ll know more once he’s out of the tank. Come on.”

He led the way to the bacta room. Though they weren’t allowed inside, there was an observation room where they waited and watched as Luke floated in the tank. He moved around in the healing fluid, as though he was caught in a nightmare.

Finally, Leia felt like she had to speak. “Do you think think he’ll be all right?”

Han was silent at first. She looked up at him and saw him watching Luke in the tank, his forehead furrowed with worry. He didn’t look at her, but he slowly, hesitantly, took her hand.

He only held it for a moment before letting go. The room clearly made him uncomfortable, and she was sure that he was still thinking about their earlier argument.

Leia, Han, and Chewie stood in the observation room, watching Luke. Though they did not speak, she realized that she was grateful for Han’s presence, as well as Chewie’s.

As the minutes passed, a realization crept up on her: when Han showed his concern for Luke, perhaps he was also trying to show Leia that he cared about her, knowing how much she cared about Luke.

She was still annoyed with Han, but it was something to think about.


	5. Badass Power Couple

The delegation from the Awonga Corporation arrived at the meeting room fifteen minutes late, and Leia didn’t think for a moment that it was an accident. The leader of the delegation, a beige-skinned Twi’lek male named Tolam Denada, gave her an unctuous, sharp-toothed smile and bowed. “My apologies for our late arrival, Senator Organa. I knew the old Senate building on Coruscant so well, but everything here is still new to me. Still, I hope to master the floorplan before too long.”

Han looked like he was resisting the urge to roll his eyes. He had agreed to be on his best behavior today, and had even put on a suit, but Leia knew that he did not have much patience for the Awonga Corporation or its emissaries. Not that she blamed him: the corporation was a front for a Hutt cartel, and not a particularly well-disguised one at that. When Denada compared the old Senate building to the new one, Leia assumed he was also referring to the arrangement he had had with the Imperial Senate. The Hutts had never been shy about bribing officials.

Leia kept her voice pleasant and her face neutral. “Please, have a seat. Since your time is valuable, I would not take up more of it than necessary.” She and Han sat, and the representatives of the Awonga Corporation followed their lead.  
Besides Denada, the representatives consisted of a human woman with close-cropped hair and a series of green stripes tattooed over her face; a twitchy, elderly Rodian with an long-healed scar across his throat; and two burly Weequays who, despite their finely-tailored suits, were clearly there for their muscle. Denada sat closest to Han and Leia, and none of the others showed any inclination to join the conversation.

“We can get down to business in a moment,” said Denada. “But before we do, can I just say what an honor it is to speak to two heroes of the Rebellion? I was most gratified to learn that you would be the ones conducting the negotiations.”

“Is that right?” Han asked. Leia gave him a quick look, warning him to be polite, and Han gave her a reassuring smile before continuing. “Because we had a bit of trouble finding out who the Awonga Corporation would be sending. I believe someone named Perba Mat was originally going to be part of your group?”

Denada’s smile only wavered for a moment before he caught himself. “Yes, we had originally intended to bring her, but she was unavoidably delayed.”

“Such a shame,” said Han, who knew full well that Mat was cooling her heels in a New Republic holding cell for illegal arms smuggling. “Well, I’m sure we’ll make her acquaintance another time.”

“Of course. Now, to get down to business.” Leia could tell that Denada was rattled by Han’s knowledge of Perba Mat’s situation, but the Twi’lek was doing a good job of hiding it. “The Awonga Corporation operates mostly outside of New Republic space, and as such, outside of New Republic jurisdiction. With the old regime, we were trusted to protect our own trade routes against pirate attacks, and I see no reason why we could not come to a similar arrangement with the new regime.”

Leia bristled at the way he referred to the New Republic and the Empire as the new and old regime, as though there was little difference between the two than who was in charge. Well, perhaps now was a good time to disabuse him of that notion. “According to the star charts your corporation sent us in advance of this meeting, several of your trade routes pass partially through New Republic space. As such, we can offer New Republic escorts to your merchant vessels.”

“How generous of you,” Denada said, his voice almost simpering. “However, that will hardly be necessary. I can assure you we can look after our own vessels. Having New Republic ships offer to help will only cause unnecessary delays and hassle on both sides.”

“Very well, you may have your own merchants pass through New Republic space unescorted,” said Leia. Han remained silent; she had told him ahead of time that she was willing to concede this to the Awonga Corporation. As Leia continued, Han began to smirk, knowing what came next. “Which really only leaves one thing.” Leia kept her voice casual. Denada narrowed his eyes at her, but she knew how to play her cards close to her chest. After all, Han and Lando had both taught her how to bluff at sabacc, which complemented the skills he had learned from her tutors as a princess and her government experience in the Imperial Senate. “Let’s agree on the locations of the tariff stations which will collect duties on the shipments passing through New Republic space.”

This time, Denada’s smile slipped. He began to speak, but the woman with the tattooed face touched his shoulder, and the two of them conversed in low voices while Leia and Han exchanged a look. Finally, Denada turned to Leia. “I had not expected to get into that today, but very well.” He took a datapad from the woman, brought up a star chart, and handed it to Leia. “What do you think of these locations?”

Leia glanced at the datapad. The locations Denada had marked were all along well-known hyperspace routes. She handed the tablet to Han.

Han took his time inspecting the map. He zoomed in a few of the locations and read the information about each. As he did so, he spoke to himself, saying, “Hm, that makes sense,” and “Oh, there’s a route there? All right.”

Leia watched Denada without making it too obvious. He seemed nervous at first, but the longer Han took to check each inspection point, the more relaxed he got.

Perhaps that is why he was so unprepared for Han to say, “But what about the Yara-Kei Bypass?”

Denada half-rose from his seat. “What?” he asked, his eyes bugging.

“Surely you’ve heard of it,” Han said. He was smiling now, that lopsided, lazy smile Leia knew so well. “It’s pretty new, I’ll admit, but it goes right past these inspection points.” To say the route was new was an understatement. It had only been discovered earlier that week, and it had taken a lot of scrambling on Han’s part, and a lot of favors being called in, to learn its location. “It’d be a shame if all that merchandise went past without being properly cleared. Just imagine all the hassle for the merchants, trying to sell unlicensed goods!”

Leia allowed herself to enjoy this. “Not to mention the high probability of contraband.”

Han looked at her, his eyes comically wide as though he had not considered that. “You’re right! They could accidentally bring in restricted goods without realizing it! Imagine the bureaucratic nightmare for anyone who got caught trying to sell something like that in New Republic space.”

Denada was fuming now. His companions looked decidedly uneasy, but Leia leaned back in her chair and relaxed. The Awonga Corporation could not afford to walk away without making a deal with the New Republic. Now, it was only a matter of how long Denada would sulk before he agreed to Leia and Han’s terms.


	6. Lost Together

“How can our location not be on the navicomputer?” Leia demanded, looking at all the blank readouts on the _Millennium Falcon_ ’s navigational screen.

“Wherever we are, we’re so far off the charts that the navicomputer can’t find a point of reference,” Han replied.

“But we’re following the route we entered into the navicomputer! Shouldn’t the simplest navicomputer know where we are if we’re following that route?”

“It’s not that simple, sweetheart. First of all, even the most well-known hyperspace routes can have variations depending on stellar phenomena, and this is hardly a well-known route.”

“So what you’re saying is that the _Falcon_ went off course?” Leia crossed her arms.

Han gritted his teeth. “Hey, don’t blame the _Falcon._ ”

“Oh, I’m not blaming the _Falcon_. I’m blaming Lando, who gave us this course, with his supposed ‘shortcut.’”

“But Lando didn’t know--”

“And I’m blaming you, for blindly following Lando’s route without checking it first!”

“Hey now, just back up one moment! You’re the one....”

As Han continued, Chewbacca sat stock-still in the copilot’s chair, staring fixedly ahead. Surely the argument would blow over soon, and Chewie intended to avoid attracting any attention until then. He didn’t want to be added to the argument--especially since he had been the one to install Lando’s shortcut into the navicomputer….


	7. Free Day

Han was lounging in the living room when he heard Leia calling from her home office, “Hey, Han, do you have a moment?”

“Sure. Why, what is it?”

“Come here a moment. I want to show you something.”

Han went to her office and she waved him over to the Holonet terminal where she was sitting. “Lando let me know about this. I couldn’t believe it at first, so I had to see it for myself.”

Han sat in a chair next to his wife and looked at the display. “People are drawing pictures of me?”

“Not just you!” Leia began to scroll through the pictures. “All of us. Luke, Lando, Chewie, and me.”

Then next picture showed Han and Leia sitting at the controls of the _Millennium Falcon_. “That’s not bad. The instrument panel layout’s all wrong, though.”

Leia rolled her eyes. “I knew you’d say that.” She brought up a picture of Han, Leia, Chewie, and Lando in a shootout with a group of bounty hunters while Luke dueled Vader with lightsabers. The dramatic lighting and heroic poses struck Han as improbable.

“I don’t get it. Why would people want to draw pictures of us?”

“Well, we’re pretty famous,” Leia said, giving him a slightly embarrassed smile. “We did defeat the Empire.”  She scrolled to a picture showing Han and Leia in the artist’s rendition of their kitchen, making a meal together. “Of course, countless beings all over the galaxy contributed to the Empire’s overthrow, and I think these artists know that, but they use these pictures of us as a way to put a face on the events of the war.”

Han shrugged. “That would explain why we’re in the kitchen. People must like seeing the heroes of the Rebellion doing ordinary things as a reminder that we’re normal people, too.”

Leia patted his shoulder. “Well, that’s one ordinary activity you could help out with more often.” Before Han could protest, she continued. “Here’s one theme that seems to be pretty popular.” She scrolled through pictures of the two of them on the Death Star, on Hoth, in the asteroid field, on Bespin, in Jabba’s palace, and on Endor. The looks of the places that weren’t well known tended to vary wildly based on the artist’s imagination. Han noticed that Jabba’s palace was especially open to interpretation, ranging from a smoky restaurant filled with well-dressed gangsters to a raucous dance floor with colorful lighting and a huge variety of outlandishly-dressed sentients. The one constant among the pictures were Han and Leia, talking, embracing, arguing, kissing….

“People sure do seem to like us,” Han murmured.

Leia’s eyes sparkled. “Well, romance is an almost universally appealing theme among sentients, and you and I are probably the most well-known couple in the galaxy.”

For once, Han didn’t seem to know what to say to that. “Huh,” was all he managed.

“It’s not just pictures, either. People take news videos of us and create animated holos of us, or they edit the images to alter the colors or add quotes.” She showed Han several examples.

“Rather dramatic, aren’t they?”

“I like to think of it as people using our story as a means to express themselves. I suppose they can be somewhat dramatic, and sometimes fairly sentimental. But that could be because a lot of them use song lyrics. And speaking of which, look at this.”

Han examined the image she brought up and read the writing superimposed on the image. “Is this a list of songs?”

“People choose a theme and select songs that go well with it.”

Han shook his head. “I don’t know any of these bands,” he said, quirking his mouth. “I must be getting old.”

“There’s quite a variety,” Leia said. “And speaking of which, there’s no limit to the creativity in the stories people write about us.”

“People like to write up accounts of our adventures?”

“Sometimes. But a lot of the time, they simply make up their own stories. A lot of those stories have us living entirely different lives, often involving serving caf.”

“Why not make up their own stories?”

Leia laughed. “People like us, remember? They admire us, and they, um, well…”

Han gave her a sidelong look. “They what?”

Leia blushed. “Well, some of the stories are pretty racy. Like this one, which is about an Imperial officer interrogating a smuggler.” She brought it up.

Han’s eyes went wide. “It’s about me being tortured?”

Leia raised her eyebrows and bit her lower lip. “Not exactly. You see, I’m the Imperial officer.”


End file.
